Rutnam wrote the screenplay, produced, directed and edited the film The Road from Elephant Pass, which was a Finalist Award Winner at the New York International Telvision and Film Awards in 2011.

He wrote the adapted screenplay and produced and directed, A Common Man with Academy Award Winner Sir Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross. The film was nominated for the four main awards at the Madrid International Film Festival. The film won the Best Picture, Best Director and the Best Actor Awards in 2013.[4]

In that same year Rutnam co-wrote the screenplay, directed and edited the film Sri Siddhartha Gauthama, which won the Best Film Award in the World Cinema Section of the Delhi International Film Festival (2013).

Rutnam was born to a Tamil father Dr. James T. Rutnam and a Sinhala mother Evelyn Wijeratne, who gave him all his yearning for freedom and adventure. He is a brother of Jayam Rutnam, the founder of the Sri Lanka America Association of Southern California(SLAASC).

Chandran Rutnam, a Finalist Award Winner, is seen with the award in the presence of Judith Rutnam (third from left), James Rutnam (fourth from left) and other people at the 2011 New York International Television and Film Awards which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada in conjunction with the NAB Show. In the Best Film category, five films were selected by the New York Festivals Grand Jury and out of over 150 films, from 36 countries, the Sri Lanka film, The Road from Elephant Pass, directed, produced and written by Chandran Rutnam, was a Finalist Award Winner, judged by an international panel of the world's best creative professionals.

Rutnam was a school boy when David Lean arrived in Sri Lanka to shoot his Second World War epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai. The film crew hired a house that belonged to his parents for the shooting.[1][2] Due to this exposure, to the consternation of his parents, he dropped out of school and went to London to pursue his dream of a career in films. He later moved to the United States and attended the film school at the University of Southern California and the San Fernando Valley College of Law. While working in Hollywood studios, Rutnam's break in selling Sri Lankan locations to international filmmakers came when he managed to convince John Derek, director of Tarzan the Apeman, to shoot the film starring his wife Bo Derek, in Sri Lanka rather than Africa.[1][2][3]

Rutnam dreamt of conquering the aviation field and masterminded Asian Aviation Centre and Lionair. Lionair was established in October 1993 and started its operations on 24 October 1994. Lionair suspended its domestic services when an Antonov An-24 aircraft went missing shortly after it took off from Jaffna in 1998, but resumed services in October 2002.[5]

Rutnam stated, "I was the sort of guy who would go to an airport and watch the planes taking off. I remember as a kid, I went to the Colombo port and watched the ships coming and going out. I do not know whether it was wanderlust or freedom of movement. I do not know which one it was. Some years ago a friend of mine and I decided that we should have an airline." [6]

Rutnam also brought to life a love story between a Tamil boy and a Sinhalese girl in Adara Kathawa (Love Story in Sinhalese) based on the story of his parents. This was prior to the commencement of the current Sri Lankan civil war in 1983.

Johnny, a Wall Street hedge fund billionaire is gathering political intelligence from a Senator in Washington inside information on political trends and the upcoming market and industry affecting legislative decisions. After the arrest of a hedge fund manager, Johnny is concerned whether what he is gathering through the Senator would be exposed in the future.[8]

After Johnny read an article in the Newsweek magazine by a professor at New York University, he becomes interested in ola-leaf reading which is known as Nadi astrology.[8]

The astrology divulges that their untimely death in the previous birth is passing onto the current birth and by getting married to her is the only way he could be saved from the forthcoming disaster.[7]

After practising mantras in the Himalayas under a sage, he acquires the power of controlling others' thoughts and actions even from remotely and the power of teleportation where he could shift himself between two locations without crossing the physical space. He is using those powers and the latest satellite technology to locate the island and then rescue her in a deadly battle with a dreaded drug lord who wants to possess her.[7]